WILTON — The Board of Selectpersons unanimously agreed Tuesday, on behalf of the town, to sign a resolution opposing the Nov. 4 referendum question banning the use of bait, dogs and traps for bear hunting.<<<Read More>>>

Driving down the freeway in the wrong direction, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and most of their non thinking, brainwashed followers, are working feverishly to stop hunting. In Maine they’ve chosen another attempt at ending hunting bears with bait, hounds and traps. And in their campaign to deceitfully convince the Maine voter that bears shouldn’t be baited, hounded or trapped, the radicals continue to present wrong information that in states where they have banned these hunting methods, bear populations have remained stable. HSUS will never convince voters about THEIR idea of ethics and hunting. HSUS is moving toward a head-on collision.

Once headed in the wrong direction, some states are looking to reverse the trend from when they banned baiting or hounding or trapping bears as they cannot control the bear populations in their states.

Let’s peek into what’s going on in other places now having to deal with bear problems.

Since April 2014 there have been 7,314 calls to Officers about black bears and they have attended 1,062 of those calls. That number is much higher than the number received for grizzly bear sightings in the province, there were 229 calls made over the past four months, with 46 of them attended by officers.

The DNR says the bear population continues to rise in northwestern Wisconsin. That means more conflicts between bears and people in areas that become increasingly residential. Now the DNR is increasing the number of bear hunting permits to decrease those conflicts.

In Oregon, where voters approved a measure to ban the use of baits and hounds in bear hunting in 1994, the black bear population has increased by 40 percent. In Massachusetts, where a ballot measure to ban hounds and traps in bear hunts passed in 1996, the bear population has skyrocketed by 700 percent.

As traffic passes by HSUS going the wrong way, it doesn’t deter them and their followers of spewing false information. In a report I filed a couple of days ago, we saw where one follower condemned the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) because they didn’t have a specific study to prove that baiting bears plays no role in the health and habits of black bears. As was pointed out in comments left by readers, MDIFW has been studying bears in Maine for 40 years. During that time they have collected perhaps more data on bears than any other entity. One would think that in 40 years biologists would have taken notice of changes in population growth and average bear weights that don’t coincide with proven science of weight and reproduction variances due to natural conditions.

The fact is now very clear to voters. HSUS has no data to support their claims about black bear management. And now, the realities of what is taking place in state after state across this nation, where limits were put on methods of harvesting bears, is hitting home destroying the claims made by HSUS and their blind mice followers. All HSUS has left is arguing hunting ethics and that has never been a successful argument to end hunting.

Perhaps if HSUS wants to discuss ethics, they should look in the mirror and see themselves as being extremely unethical in the methods of conning the public out of money to pay the inflated salaries and benefit packages going to HSUS staff and administration.

It’s the fall of 2015. A bear walks into a doughnut shop in Portland and says, “Give me two dozen assorted to go.”

“Sorry,” says the bakery’s proprietor. “Ever since that referendum backed by the Humane Society of the United States passed last year, it’s been illegal to feed doughnuts to bears. It’s really cutting into my business.”

“I understand,” replies the bear. “It’s not your fault voters made such a shortsighted decision. Unfortunately, though, you’ll have to – forgive the pun – bear the consequences.”

Whereupon, the beast leaps the counter, mauls the baker and trashes his store.<<<Read More>>>

Given the difficulties the government of Newfoundland currently faces with a class action suit surrounding their management of the moose herd and highway deaths involving moose you would expect a heightened sense of the importance of getting management issues right. While there is little chance of bear and human interactions reaching the levels of those of moose and humans the potential liabilities need to be recognized. Government sets not only forest harvest regulations but regulations around disposal of organic materials. The necessity of foreseeing unintended consequences has become a hallmark of our age.<<<Read More>>>

In what can only be described as the ramblings of a confused man, a letter to the editor in Maine Environmental News, describes the human being as anything but…..well, human, even going to the point of saying there are just too many humans. And yet, he chooses to live and add to his perceived problem.

Dare I say, though, that while the writer of this letter points out many truths in what has become of our society, he becomes confused in his thinking that bears and humans need to live “harmoniously.” I think, if you listen closely while reading his creation, you can hear in the background, “I’d like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony.”

And so what’s really wrong? What’s wrong is, mostly what Mark Twain said about being successful; “You need two things: ignorance and confidence.” While this person exudes the confidence to express his beliefs, he somehow thinks he can find his answer by living “harmoniously” with bears (ignorance).

As was commented to me, why not just have a good bear management plan along with a necessary bear hunting season to keep population numbers in check in order that nuisance bear problems be kept to a minimum? And that bear hunting season might just need to include baiting.

“Black bears foraging for food are appearing in neighborhoods across southern and central Maine, prompting an increase in calls to state wildlife officials and warnings from local police to make backyards less attractive to the animals.

So far this year there have been 605 bear complaints, outpacing the total of 400 for all of 2013. Given that there are about 30,000 bears in Maine – a 30 percent increase from 10 years ago and more bears than any other state east of the Mississippi River – the number of complaints is relatively small, according to wildlife officials.”<<<Read More>>>

While activists, hiding behind animals as an excuse to promote their totalitarian agendas, are spending millions of dollars in states like Maine to effectively end reasonable, productive and effective bear hunting, we find yet one more state that has watched their black bear population grow 5-fold in thirty years. In addition to North Carolina voting to implement a bear hunting season this year, they have provided a quasi bear baiting allowance that we’ll have to wait to see how effective it will be.

…..allowing the aid or use of unprocessed foods for bear hunting on private lands as long as the bear is not actually consuming the unprocessed foods.

Another problem bear entered a house in Glenwood Springs, Colorado and did some breaking. Contrary to the lies perpetrated by extremist animal protection groups like the Humane Society of the United States, banning of bear hunting over bait has caused bear populations to grow out of control. According to this one report, there have been 13 bears killed due to being a nuisance in just the month of July in only one zone.